Americans' satisfaction with education system increasesGallup As students return to school in the U.S., 48 percent of Americans are "completely" or "somewhat satisfied" with the quality of kindergarten through high school education in the country, the highest Gallup has measured since 2004. For the first time since 2007, Americans are now about as likely to say they are satisfied as dissatisfied.

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In an effort to enhance the overall content of THE LD SOURCE, we'd like to include peer-written articles in future editions. As a member and/or reader of THE LD SOURCE, your knowledge of learning disabilities and related issues lends itself to unprecedented expertise. And we're hoping you'll share this expertise with your peers through well-written commentary. Because of the digital format, there's no word or graphical limit. Our group of talented editors can help with final edits. If you're interested in participating, please contact Ronnie Richard to discuss logistics.

Scientists find differences in brains of those with dyslexiaHealthDay News via U.S. News & World ReportResearchers have discovered that people with dyslexia have disrupted network connections in their brains. Dyslexia — the most commonly diagnosed learning disorder in the United States — causes problems with reading and writing. Previous research showed that brain activity is disrupted in people with dyslexia, but most of those studies focused only on a small number of brain regions. This new study used functional MRI to analyze how multiple brain regions use networks to communicate with each other, something called functional connectivity.

Need help picking the right learning game? Some things to considerMindShift To make sense of the broad and complex world of games and learning, we're inclined to create neatly organized lists and categories. The truth is that there are so many different kinds of learning games, it's difficult to break them down into clear-cut categories. Especially in an atmosphere of ed-tech entrepreneurship that aims to disrupt our habitual way of thinking about education, familiar classification structures can sometimes hold us back more than they move us forward.

Fiscal recovery buoys K-12 budgets as school year opensEducation Week The modest but steady recovery of state K-12 budgets over the past few years is expected to continue, national experts on education finance say, although to what extent schools and districts will feel a real impact from budget changes for the 2014-2015 school year is an open question. In the current budget year, most state lawmakers have decided to continue reinvesting in public schools through their traditional "foundation" programs, which generate much of the state aid for K-12.

Student-Paced, Mastery-Based MathSince 2004, Math-U-See has worked with intervention and special education teachers to reach struggling special needs math students. Math-U-See corresponds to math ability rather than traditional grade levels, so it can be used with students of any age. We provide tools and training for an explicit, structured, systematic, cumulative program using multi-sensory teaching techniques. MORE

A new twist on concentration: Standing while you workDistrict Administration Magazine A growing workplace health trend is moving to classrooms: More schools are adding standing desks as a tool to increase alertness and combat childhood obesity. In 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "One of the main battles we fight today is technology-induced inactivity — we're able to just sit in front of a screen for most of our waking hours, and as a result people have become very sedentary compared to past decades," says Mark Benden, an associate professor at Texas A&M who researches classroom ergonomics and childhood obesity.

Learning to read: Tricking the brainCNRS via Science DailyWhile reading, children and adults alike must avoid confusing mirror-image letters (like b/d or p/q). Why is it difficult to differentiate these letters? When learning to read, our brain must be able to inhibit the mirror-generalization process, a mechanism that facilitates the recognition of identical objects regardless of their orientation, but also prevents the brain from differentiating letters that are different but symmetrical.

Boom-bang homework assignmentsEdutopia Homework is beneficial. Or it's not. Research supports both positions and all the contentious points in between. If you count yourself among the 70 percent of U.S. teachers who assign take-home work, you may find value in the following recommendations for making those assignments more effective, creative and motivational — in other words, with boom-bang academic power.

Social class makes a difference in how children tackle classroom problemsIndiana University via Science Daily Social class can account for differences in how parents coach their children to manage classroom challenges, a study shows. Such differences can affect a child's education by reproducing inequalities in the classroom. With the widening gaps in educational outcomes between social classes, the researcher suggested that this study could help schools become more aware of these differences and make moves to reduce the inequalities.

US falls behind on innovation in educationBy: Archita Datta Majumdar All is not well in the U.S. education system, which has been battling many fires in recent times. The latest blow comes from the report, "Measuring Innovation in Education," recently released by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The study on global education standards spans across nations and compares everything from the number of thought processes to the latest tools used. What has emerged from the report is that the world's leading nation has to fight hard to maintain the status quo.

Back to school without vaccines? Growing concern in some statesNBC News As kids across the country head back to school, a growing number may walk through the doors without first getting vaccines. All 50 states require vaccinations for children going to public school, but nearly every state allows exemptions. In Vermont, Michigan, Idaho and Oregon more than 5 percent of kindergartners had non-medical exemptions last year, according to the CDC, well above the national average of 1.8 percent. Nationally, rates have been declining for many childhood vaccines.

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